To convert an oven recipe to an air fryer, reduce every temperature by 25°F (15°C) and multiply every cooking time by 0.8. A recipe reading “bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes” becomes “air fry at 375°F (190°C) for 24 minutes.”
An air fryer conversion restates cooking instructions written for one appliance so they produce the same result in another. This page covers the tool that rewrites a whole recipe at once, the adjustments it applies, the food types that need different figures, and the instructions that cannot be converted at all.
Paste any recipe or packet instructions — every temperature and time is rewritten for your appliance
Converted instructions
What changed
| Original | Converted | Why |
|---|
How do you convert a whole recipe rather than one number?
Paste the recipe into the tool above. It finds every temperature and every cooking time in the text, rewrites each one, and shows you which figures changed and why.
Working through a recipe by hand is where errors creep in — a recipe with a preheat temperature, a bake time, a covered stage and a finishing stage has four figures to adjust, and missing one produces a result you cannot diagnose afterwards.
Which parts of a recipe change?
Three, and only three.
Temperatures drop by 25°F (15°C) from a conventional oven, or 10°F (5°C) from a convection or fan oven.
Cooking times are multiplied by 0.8 from a conventional oven, or 0.9 from a convection oven.
Quantities often have to change, though the recipe will not tell you so. An air fryer basket holds one loose layer; a recipe written for a sheet pan usually needs two batches.
Ingredients, method and order stay exactly as written. There is no such thing as reformulating a recipe for an air fryer.
Does the whole recipe use the same adjustment?
Usually, but not always. Two food types take different figures, and applying the standard rule to them is the most common conversion failure.
| Food type | Temperature | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Most foods | −25°F / −15°C | × 0.80 |
| Cookies and biscuits | −50°F / −30°C | × 0.85 |
| Cakes and risen bakes | −50°F / −30°C | × 0.85 |
| Below 325°F (165°C) | −18°F / −10°C | × 0.80 |
Cookie dough and cake batter are thin, wet and sit directly in the fan’s path, so the surface sets and browns before the centre has spread or risen. They need a larger temperature drop and a smaller time cut than a roast.
The tool applies these per sentence, so a recipe covering both a protein and a bake gets the right rule for each line rather than one rule for the whole document.
What cannot be converted?
Four things, and the tool flags each when it finds them.
Wet batters. Beer batter and tempura need hot oil to set on contact. In moving air they drip through the basket before they firm, leaving bare food and a coated drawer.
Long slow cooks. Brisket, pulled pork and anything over roughly 90 minutes rarely fits an air fryer with clearance around it, whatever the arithmetic says.
Large items. Over about 4 lb (1.8 kg) there is no way to leave the 2–3 cm of air clearance the appliance needs on every side.
Covered and liquid dishes. Braises and stews have no exposed surface for moving air to act on, so there is nothing for the conversion to improve.
Do you have to change the quantity?
Often, and this is the adjustment recipes never mention. The converted times assume a single loose layer with visible gaps between pieces.
| Basket size | Practical batch |
|---|---|
| 3–4 qt / 3–4 L | 8 oz / 225 g |
| 5–6 qt / 5–6 L | 1 lb / 450 g |
| 7–8 qt / 7–8 L | 1.5 lb / 675 g |
A basket more than two-thirds full blocks air circulation and the food steams instead of browning. Cook two batches rather than adding time — the second runs 2–3 minutes shorter because the basket is already hot.
When should you check the food?
At roughly 70% of the converted time on any recipe you have not converted before. A 24-minute conversion gets checked at 17 minutes.
The first conversion of any recipe is an estimate you are calibrating to your own unit. Note when it actually finished, and every later attempt is exact.
For proteins, use internal temperature rather than the clock: 165°F (74°C) for poultry, 145°F (63°C) for whole cuts of pork, beef and fish, 160°F (71°C) for ground meat.
Related conversions and adjacent topics
Converting in the other direction uses the reciprocal, not the same percentage. The inverse of 0.8 is 1.25, so an air fryer recipe converted back to an oven gains 25% of its time — see converting an air fryer recipe to the oven.
Capacity affects the result more than temperature does. The basket capacity guide covers batch limits, and foods you should not convert covers what fails outright.
To convert a single temperature and time rather than a whole recipe, the oven to air fryer conversion calculator does both adjustments together.
Frequently asked questions
How do you convert an oven recipe to an air fryer?
Reduce every temperature by 25°F (15°C) and multiply every cooking time by 0.8. A 400°F, 30-minute bake becomes 375°F for 24 minutes.
Can I paste a whole recipe to convert it?
Yes. The tool above finds every temperature and time in the text and rewrites each one, with a table showing what changed.
Do I change the ingredients?
No. Only temperatures, times and sometimes the batch size change. Ingredients and method stay as written.
Does the same rule apply to baking?
No. Cookies and cakes need a 50°F (30°C) drop rather than 25°F, and a 15% time cut rather than 20%.
What if the recipe gives a fan oven temperature?
Reduce by 10°F (5°C) instead of 25°F, because a fan oven already circulates air. Select convection in the tool and it applies the smaller adjustment.
Why does my converted recipe still come out wrong?
Nearly always basket load. The times assume a single loose layer — if the basket is more than two-thirds full, split it into two batches.